Hymn in Praise of Generosity

Rigveda X.117 is a sūkta (hymn) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. Unlike most Rigvedic hymns, it addresses no god directly — it is a wisdom hymn on the ethics of sharing food, arguing that the man who hoards finds no one to pity him when his own turn of misfortune comes.

This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.

1. The gods did not ordain hunger alone as the death-blow; death comes upon the well-fed man too, in many forms. And the wealth of the man who gives does not run out; but the man who does not give finds no one to show him mercy.

2. The man who has food, yet hardens his mind against the needy one craving food, against the weak man worn down who has come to him — even he, though served well before, finds no one to show him mercy.

3. He alone is the true giver who gives to the homeless one, to the gaunt wanderer roaming in want of food. Support stands ready for him when the call comes; and in time to come he gains that man as a friend.

4. He is no friend who does not give to a friend, to the companion who shares his bread and stays at his side. Let one turn away from such a house — it is no home; let him seek out another giver, even a stranger.

5. Let the strong man give to the one who begs, and let him look down the longer road ahead — for riches turn like chariot wheels, coming now to one man, now to another.

6. The fool without understanding gets his food in vain — I speak the truth: it becomes for him a death-blow. He feeds no patron, no friend; the man who eats alone earns only wrong.

7. It is the plowshare, in plowing, that makes the food men eat; it is by walking that the traveler wears the road down with his steps. The man who speaks is worth more than the man who stays silent; let the giving kinsman outdo the one who does not give.

8. The one-footed has stepped farther than the two-footed; the two-footed overtakes the three-footed, coming behind. The four-footed comes at the call of the two-footed, watching over the rows, standing in attendance.

9. Though two hands are alike, they do not do the same work. Though two cows share one mother, they do not give the same milk. Even twins do not have equal strength; even two kinsmen do not give in equal measure.

Translator's note: verse 8 is a traditional riddle whose terms are not glossed in the hymn itself — "one-footed," "two-footed," "three-footed," and "four-footed" are commonly read as figures for a walking-stick or the sun, a man, an old man leaning on a staff, and a dog, but the Sanskrit itself only states the numbers of feet and their order; the rendering above stays with the literal image rather than supplying an interpretation the text does not give.

Colophon

Rigveda X.117 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.

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Source Text: ṛgveda X.117

Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

na vā u devāḥ kṣudham id vadhaṁ dadur utāśitam upa gacchanti mṛtyavaḥ |
uto rayiḥ pṛṇato nopa dasyaty utāpṛṇan marḍitāraṁ na vindate || 1 ||

ya ādhrāya cakamānāya pitvo 'nnavān san raphitāyopajagmuṣe |
sthiram manaḥ kṛṇute sevate puroto cit sa marḍitāraṁ na vindate || 2 ||

sa id bhojo yo gṛhave dadāty annakāmāya carate kṛśāya |
aram asmai bhavati yāmahūtā utāparīṣu kṛṇute sakhāyam || 3 ||

na sa sakhā yo na dadāti sakhye sacābhuve sacamānāya pitvaḥ |
apāsmāt preyān na tad oko asti pṛṇantam anyam araṇaṁ cid icchet || 4 ||

pṛṇīyād in nādhamānāya tavyān drāghīyāṁsam anu paśyeta panthām |
o hi vartante rathyeva cakrānyam-anyam upa tiṣṭhanta rāyaḥ || 5 ||

mogham annaṁ vindate apracetāḥ satyam bravīmi vadha it sa tasya |
nāryamaṇam puṣyati no sakhāyaṁ kevalāgho bhavati kevalādī || 6 ||

kṛṣann it phāla āśitaṁ kṛṇoti yann adhvānam apa vṛṅkte caritraiḥ |
vadan brahmāvadato vanīyān pṛṇann āpir apṛṇantam abhi ṣyāt || 7 ||

ekapād bhūyo dvipado vi cakrame dvipāt tripādam abhy eti paścāt |
catuṣpād eti dvipadām abhisvare sampaśyan paṅktīr upatiṣṭhamānaḥ || 8 ||

samau cid dhastau na samaṁ viviṣṭaḥ sammātarā cin na samaṁ duhāte |
yamayoś cin na samā vīryāṇi jñātī cit santau na samam pṛṇītaḥ || 9 ||

Source Colophon

Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).